The present invention claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/662,192, filed Sep. 15, 2003, entitled JIG FOR FORMING A BOX JOINT. The present invention relates to jigs for cutting wood and related products and more specifically to jigs used to form box joints with a table saw.
Jigs have long been used to make repetitive cutting simpler. In a typical jig, boards or other material to be cut are uniformly laid on a jig and marked or cut at a specific location. For instance studs to be cut to a certain length may all be abutted along a straight edge. A marker of some form may be positioned at the distance away from the straight edge at which the cut is to be made. Without measuring any of the boards, the woodworker knows where to make the cut across all the boards, e.g., at the point of the marker. Jigs in essence remove the need for repeated measuring.
Various complex joints have been proposed and used for joining adjacent corners of furniture. The dove tail, box joint and many other varieties of joints have been developed in this regard. Each type of joint has certain benefits and detriments associated with the joint. Typically, these joints all suffer from complexity of cutting.
Some jigs have been proposed for cutting the box joint. These jigs generally allow only two of the four boards to be cut at the same time. Thus, the woodworker needs to adjust the jig for the first pair of boards, turn the boards over and continue cutting. Then the jig is readjusted and the process of cutting turning and cutting is repeated. If the jig is not set up correctly between the pairs of boards, wood is wasted and the process is continued until the cuts are at the right location. Moreover, these jigs typically have a maximum size of board that can be used with the jig further adding to their limitations.
What is needed is a jig that allows all four boards to be cut simultaneously. The jig should be simple to arrange, preferably mechanical, have manner of aligning the boards which does not require adjustment and be suitable to use with boards of any conceivable length.